How for the first time the winning majority got to select the Commission President...but not before a series of almighty political clashes.

Spitzenkandidaten: the underlying story

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/12052468/m003-0305-enx.srt

I'd like to congratulate you,  the Commission President-designate,

Enjoy working with your supporters,  but also with your opponents.

They will shape your profile, although today  you proved that you have one already.

Jean-Claude Juncker, I wish you  the best of luck for your future work.

I have always called for  a Spitzenkandidat, a top candidate,

because I thought that would allow people

not to personalise but to visualise  one of the issues of the election campaign,

which was to know who would be appointed  President of the Commission and how.

becomes the symbol  of European democratic reform.

do five candidates vie for the post  of President of the European Commission.

This time the appointment  doesn't depend on agreement

between the EU's now 28 heads  of state and government, as before,

And for the first time Europeans discover  televised presidential debates...

..three of them,  all crossing national borders.

another German Martin Schulz  for the Socialists,

Luxembourger Jean-Claude Juncker  for the Christian Democrats

and for the Liberals,  Belgian Guy Verhofstadt.

It was a long-term concept  and also a part of our campaign

that was decided on  1.5 years before the election,

when we said, 'This time it's different.  Choose who's in charge.'

The citizens were to choose, not only  who would make up the Parliament

but also who would lead the EU executive,  the European Commission.

I think it was at the CDU  general convention in '97

where it was decided they wanted to have  a top candidate in the European elections

who would then become Commission  President if they won the election.

Long-standing and well-connected  EPP leader.

The word Spitzenkandidat has been around  for a long time in the EPP.

In 2001, 2002, in Laeken, there were  discussions on the evolution of Europe.

So there was already  this discussion about giving

Secondly, if the Socialist party  joined in with this discussion

And we would be on the way  to the Spitzenkandidat system.

who's very political and very committed,  was a great help

in setting up the Spitzenkandidat system  in the last European elections.

The Liberals, Greens and the left  join in the initiative.

But Mr Schulz it is who is credited above all,

outside of the Brussels political circuit, too.

In his book, 'History of the West', the  German historian Heinrich August Winkler

identifies him as the force bringing  the Spitzenkandidat system into being.

as political parties prepare  for the European elections.

Five parties organise primaries  to elect their chosen one.

For the Socialists it's Martin Schulz,  President of the European Parliament,

The following year in March, less than  three months before the elections,

the centre-right European People's Party

is the last to take the plunge  at their convention in Dublin.

Face to face, former European  Commissioner Michel Barnier

and former Luxembourg Prime Minister  Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mr Juncker it is who wins the contest...

We will win this election,  I guarantee you.

..embarking on a whirlwind pre-election  campaign tour across Europe.

On the one hand, we have really  a genuinely new European process

where pan-European candidates  go around different countries,

debate with each other, give interviews  in other countries' national media.

Yet at the same time we also face  the limitations of that

due to language, due to name recognition,

due to the established political forces  within each Member State.

Let that be no hindrance to politicians  who've got votes to win.

The 'Spitzenkandidaten' go on tour  in 28 Member States.

We as leading candidates were the face  of the European dimension of this election.

It is very complicated  to be known all over Europe.

It's a big continent. We have  so many different Member States.

You have to be able to speak in different  languages, so it really is not easy.

But I do think this can only  have been the first step.

Thrust under the spotlight,  in a spectacle new to the whole process

of electing the European Parliament,  the televised debate.

A chance, under equal conditions  for all, for the candidates

to win the hearts and souls  of Europe's notoriously reluctant voters.

I would have preferred interviews,  dialogue, real exchanges,

which isn't possible with five or six people.

The fact that Jean-Claude Juncker, the  current President of the Commission, and I

was a move that respects  the European institutional position

because people from different countries  and languages meet there.

This leading candidate issue brought  a European debate to the European level

and I really felt it resonated  in different countries.

Sure that was also varying  from country to country,

but still it really brought a European  dimension to the national campaigns.

What did it all add up to?  The press loves a spectacle,

Spitzenkandidaten: the underlying story

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